Implementation of procedures for reporting location of mobile devices generally incurs a substantial amount of signaling in a wireless network and in the mobile device. Reporting location of a mobile device generally includes location area update at a wireless network that serves the mobile device. While idle, the mobile device scans for a change in location area broadcast by a cell site in which the mobile device is camping on. In such scenario, the change in location area causes the mobile device to transmit a location area update towards the wireless network through a first cell site detected by the mobile device. Updated location area information generally is utilized to route incoming pages towards a correct set of cell sites within the location area reported by the mobile device in response to the foregoing change. Yet, location area updates typically are concentrated on border cell sites, which are likely overloaded with signaling traffic. In addition, location area updates also affect battery life of the mobile device.
Location areas may contain several (e.g., 10-104) cell sites. Yet, within such location areas there is no update, or network knowledge, of the actual location of the mobile device. Moreover, in certain buildings, mobile devices routinely select between disparate location areas and transmit related location area updates to several cell sites, even when the mobile devices are stationary within the buildings. Such reselection and updates, and related signaling load, is exacerbated by load-triggered cell breathing, wherein the wireless network that serves a mobile device effectively moves with respect the mobile device even though the mobile device may be in a static state.
Moreover, location areas generally are added in response to increases in network traffic and capacity demand in a wireless network increase; the added location areas commonly cover less area that extant location area and thus cause an increase in location area updates. As a result, signaling load and behavior is more dependent on the density of location area and mobility of a mobile device and less dependent on actual revenue-creating activity of an end user. In such scenarios, the accuracy, value and benefit of location area updates based on changes in location area are less than the incremental signaling load. In certain scenarios, a location area may have been enlarged to encompass several radio network controllers (RNCs) in order to reduce the number of disparate location areas and related updates caused by changes in location area. Yet, such location area configuration can exacerbate paging signaling load rather than reduce location area update signaling load. In addition, such location area configuration reduces the granularity, or resolution, of location awareness of the mobile device which can be useful for other applications or services.
Furthermore, reporting location of a mobile device generally includes delivery of a location or related information by the mobile device. Mobile devices typically have background applications that are executed to measure and report location towards a server in a wireless network on a regular basis. In certain scenarios, the mobile device can measure and report location nearly constantly or constantly. Such measuring and reporting consume battery resources and network resources available to the mobile device in order to collect and transmit the location or the related information. However, such location or related information not always is current or necessary for operation of the mobile device. In addition, reporting location of the mobile device from the mobile device generally is not utilized for call session routing; thus, any additional signaling load incurred by reporting location of the mobile device there from is in addition to signaling incurred for reporting location area changes. To mitigate the signaling overhead arising from such additional signaling, certain mobile device may be configures to report location in response, primarily, to a change in cell site, Wi-Fi SSID, or the like. Yet, while such approach may reduce the signaling overhead and overall signaling load in a wireless network, timeliness and accuracy of location reporting in mobile devices so configured can be reduced.